Visiting State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan and Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski pledged to boost bilateral ties during a meeting in Macedonia's capital city of Skopje.

 

Tang, who arrived in Skopje on Monday, expressed China's appreciation for the Macedonian Government's policy of making developing Sino-Macedonian ties its diplomatic priority.

 

Tang hopes both sides will hold tightly to the main direction of the development between the two countries, push cooperation forward and harvest more progress.

 

He made a number of suggestions on how to boost bilateral ties.

 

The first one, Tang said, is to further promote exchange between the countries' governments and parliaments, increase exchanges between various parties and people, enhance political trust, and consolidate the basis of friendship.

 

The second one is to deepen trade and economic cooperation, excavate potential, broaden the fields and methods of cooperation, raise the standards of cooperation, and achieve mutual benefit and a win-win situation.

 

The third one is to strengthen cooperation in culture, education, science, technology, radio and television and introduce incentives to the sustained development of bilateral ties.

 

Tang also exchanged opinions on the issue of Kosovo with Gruevski.

 

It is no good to handle the issue of Kosovo with undue haste, even worse to set up a time limit and impose solutions on others, Tang said, adding that the settlement of the issue needs patience and wisdom.

 

As member of the UN Security Council, China is willing to contribute constructive efforts to the settlement of the issue of Kosovo, Tang said.

 

For his part, Gruevski said Macedonia attached great importance to the development of Sino-Macedonian ties and agreed to the important suggestions Tang raised to boost bilateral ties.

 

The prime minister reiterated that his government would steadfastly pursue the one-China policy, and object to "Taiwan independence" activities with determination.

 

On Monday, the two also attended a ceremony to sign an agreement on Sino-Macedonian economic and technological cooperation, and took part in a press conference.

 

Tang, who previously visited Serbia, arrived in Skopje on Monday for a short visit. Macedonia is the second stop of Tang's eight-day official visit, which will also take him to Montenegro, Slovenia, and Croatia.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2006)